Watch Me Entertain Myself!

Sacha Guitry once said, "You can pretend to be serious, but you can't pretend to be witty." Oh yes, I'm the great pretender.

(pilot episode: 20 January 2004)

Sunday, July 11, 2010

At The Book Launch

The following is the short “speech” I made after reading an excerpt from my book—the one wherein I hooked up with a polio-victim in the bathhouse.

* * * * *

(My book has a lot of sex in it, but please, let me make this very clear, we should all play safe.)

I chose that excerpt for a reason.

When Gibo first approached me with the idea of compiling my bathhouse blog entries into a book, I was, to be perfectly honest, not surprised. I actually had thought of that idea before, but immediately dismissed it because it would entail money to publish the book. And anyway, I had already published it—online.

It was the book that I didn’t really realize I had already written.

Coming up with the book was actually very easy. It was all cut-and-paste. The only tedious thing about it was plowing through six years worth of blog entries. And it was then that I discovered something embarrassing, so embarrassing that I will share it with you today.

What I found out was this: that particular “polio porn” I just narrated was a story I had blogged about twice—and I didn’t even realize it until I started compiling my bathhouse entries.

I realize I am not too attached to my words. I wrote them down, I let them loose online. Usually I re-read them once they’re published online—just to make sure, maybe make last-minute corrections. But that’s it. I rarely go back to them once they get pushed out of the screen. That they come back to me now, in book form, for you guys to enjoy, is just a bonus.

Which is why, when friends ask me, “Aren’t you excited? You’re a published author!” I usually respond with a nonchalant, “Yeah.” I had released my “babies” online way, way before. Someone just decided to drag them all back in one place for a grand reunion.

At gising ma ang dyosa! haha! still have time to post this?! Ikaw na ng dyosang blogger! It was nice meeting you guys in person, getting your signature and getting a handful of inspiring words from you...